December 30, 2009 at 17:22Open community: an alternative to pseudo-useful state IT projects
Good afternoon friends.
Today I would like to talk about the situation with "IT" projects in our country. I, like many, are annoyed by the numerous "cuts" around the creation of state sites, as well as the squalor that comes for SUCH (quite considerable) money. What bothers me is the fact that these hard-earned, honestly earned taxpayer money is being spent on these “projects”.
However, I am not a supporter of shaking my fists, calling out to the crowd from an armored car, picking up weapons or writing angry articles on Habré (although the latter often have a positive effect). Instead, I propose to take a different (constructive) path. I propose organizing an open community that will develop IT systems that are really in demand in society.. Under the cut, I will try to describe in detail what I mean.
Background About
the last six months, I have been actively engaged in the automation of various processes at work. I already wrote about all of them on Habré. I will not be shy, the articles were rated pretty well. Some asked if it was possible to get acquainted with the source codes of my developments, as they wanted to apply in their organizations.
I also saw the effect of using my developments with us - in terms of the large volume of use and how it became more convenient to work. Actually, the main doubt was only one thing - put on a commercial footing, or put all the sources in the public domain (in collective development). Drawn the second.
Demand
Will it be in demand? Is it worth the effort? In my opinion, there is generally an uncowed field. Even if you take the two systems that I personally post ("electronic applications" and "electronic queue" - see the link at the very end of the article) - they can be in demand in a very large number of organizations. Does your IT department still accept applications by phone? You are on this list. Crazy lines of citizens in the hallway? You are also on this list. And these are just two relatively small components.
But you can create a ton of other, compact and functional components. See where uncomfortable. Where you can save five minutes for each person in the queue. Where can I make it easier. Where to automate. Everything is in your power.
Personally, I face such minor inconveniences every day. Why should I fill out three forms with almost the same information by hand (!!!) at the post office? Pay some kind of duty - again filling by hand. Going to the clinic at the place of residence is akin to the plot “welcome to our modest little hell”. In general, it’s not for me to tell you the details. Yes, you yourself see everything perfectly. Mess. Chaos.
An open community
And when in Russia a mess, where are its good fellows, what will be able to restore order? So we will sit out in the bushes, and only angrily pound the table in the kitchen in the evening, scolding everything around? What prevents us from doing the opencommunity, and through it change your (our common!) life for the better? After all, if everyone adds something of their own to the total work, to the extent of their abilities, the presence of desire and opportunities, we will surely be able to get something worthy of the output. And everyone will know: yes, this also has a particle of my work.
I know that there are a lot of smart people on Habré, and there are those who are dissatisfied with the existing order (recently I see a stream of articles of this orientation). Let's unite. The time has come for real action.
Just in case, I’ll also touch on the financial issue. If someone makes a significant contribution to the development, will there be anything else but moral satisfaction? I think the financial model here will be the same as in any other open community (for example, offhand - the CMS Jumla community). The base itself (Jumla) is free, but if you want to refine, configure, fit, tricky components to your needs or some other "tricks" - pay money to a specialist. In general, the classic approach: payment for additional services.
By the way, more attentive ones may also ask such a question: what is the reason for me (i.e., the author of this article) to post their developments in the public domain? Is there a catch here? I’ll answer for sure - no. If it was a commercial development, one could suspect me of PR. The real goals are very simple: to participate in collective development and learn from my more experienced colleagues in the workshop (I evaluate my skills somewhere around four).
Suggestions in essence
In general, the dry residue of everything written above looks like this: let's offer a real (really working) alternative to all those projects that only promise us a happy life. Let it be small projects, this is normal. The main thing is not the amount of code, but its effectiveness, how many people can really help it.
And in order not to be unsubstantiated, I will first set an example myself. Here at this link you can download the sources of my own system. The system itself is a “foundation” on which additional components are hung (you can familiarize yourself with the components of the “electronic application” and the “electronic queue”). Inside the archive - my explanations for the system (two html-files), as well as sql-script for database generation.
I will be glad to respond to specialists of any direction: designers, programmers, designers, layout designers, testers - in general, to everyone who can make their contribution to this (God forbid, promising) initiative. Thanks in advance.
UPDATE: everyone - register in Google groups
Today I would like to talk about the situation with "IT" projects in our country. I, like many, are annoyed by the numerous "cuts" around the creation of state sites, as well as the squalor that comes for SUCH (quite considerable) money. What bothers me is the fact that these hard-earned, honestly earned taxpayer money is being spent on these “projects”.
However, I am not a supporter of shaking my fists, calling out to the crowd from an armored car, picking up weapons or writing angry articles on Habré (although the latter often have a positive effect). Instead, I propose to take a different (constructive) path. I propose organizing an open community that will develop IT systems that are really in demand in society.. Under the cut, I will try to describe in detail what I mean.
Background About
the last six months, I have been actively engaged in the automation of various processes at work. I already wrote about all of them on Habré. I will not be shy, the articles were rated pretty well. Some asked if it was possible to get acquainted with the source codes of my developments, as they wanted to apply in their organizations.
I also saw the effect of using my developments with us - in terms of the large volume of use and how it became more convenient to work. Actually, the main doubt was only one thing - put on a commercial footing, or put all the sources in the public domain (in collective development). Drawn the second.
Demand
Will it be in demand? Is it worth the effort? In my opinion, there is generally an uncowed field. Even if you take the two systems that I personally post ("electronic applications" and "electronic queue" - see the link at the very end of the article) - they can be in demand in a very large number of organizations. Does your IT department still accept applications by phone? You are on this list. Crazy lines of citizens in the hallway? You are also on this list. And these are just two relatively small components.
But you can create a ton of other, compact and functional components. See where uncomfortable. Where you can save five minutes for each person in the queue. Where can I make it easier. Where to automate. Everything is in your power.
Personally, I face such minor inconveniences every day. Why should I fill out three forms with almost the same information by hand (!!!) at the post office? Pay some kind of duty - again filling by hand. Going to the clinic at the place of residence is akin to the plot “welcome to our modest little hell”. In general, it’s not for me to tell you the details. Yes, you yourself see everything perfectly. Mess. Chaos.
An open community
And when in Russia a mess, where are its good fellows, what will be able to restore order? So we will sit out in the bushes, and only angrily pound the table in the kitchen in the evening, scolding everything around? What prevents us from doing the opencommunity, and through it change your (our common!) life for the better? After all, if everyone adds something of their own to the total work, to the extent of their abilities, the presence of desire and opportunities, we will surely be able to get something worthy of the output. And everyone will know: yes, this also has a particle of my work.
I know that there are a lot of smart people on Habré, and there are those who are dissatisfied with the existing order (recently I see a stream of articles of this orientation). Let's unite. The time has come for real action.
Just in case, I’ll also touch on the financial issue. If someone makes a significant contribution to the development, will there be anything else but moral satisfaction? I think the financial model here will be the same as in any other open community (for example, offhand - the CMS Jumla community). The base itself (Jumla) is free, but if you want to refine, configure, fit, tricky components to your needs or some other "tricks" - pay money to a specialist. In general, the classic approach: payment for additional services.
By the way, more attentive ones may also ask such a question: what is the reason for me (i.e., the author of this article) to post their developments in the public domain? Is there a catch here? I’ll answer for sure - no. If it was a commercial development, one could suspect me of PR. The real goals are very simple: to participate in collective development and learn from my more experienced colleagues in the workshop (I evaluate my skills somewhere around four).
Suggestions in essence
In general, the dry residue of everything written above looks like this: let's offer a real (really working) alternative to all those projects that only promise us a happy life. Let it be small projects, this is normal. The main thing is not the amount of code, but its effectiveness, how many people can really help it.
And in order not to be unsubstantiated, I will first set an example myself. Here at this link you can download the sources of my own system. The system itself is a “foundation” on which additional components are hung (you can familiarize yourself with the components of the “electronic application” and the “electronic queue”). Inside the archive - my explanations for the system (two html-files), as well as sql-script for database generation.
I will be glad to respond to specialists of any direction: designers, programmers, designers, layout designers, testers - in general, to everyone who can make their contribution to this (God forbid, promising) initiative. Thanks in advance.
UPDATE: everyone - register in Google groups
